USC to open new baseball stadium vs. Duquesne

The South Carolina baseball team has announced its schedule for the 2009 season featuring 24 games against 2008 NCAA

Tournament teams as well as 34 home games in its new baseball facility. South Carolina will unveil the ballpark in the season opener on Friday, Feb. 20 vs. Duquesne. The match-up with the Dukes will be the first of a three-game series that weekend.

South Carolina and Clemson will again meet four times in the season beginning with a home and home series on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1. The first game is scheduled in Clemson at Doug Kingsmore Stadium with the return game in Columbia. Both teams will also meet twice in April with Carolina traveling to Clemson on Wednesday, April 8 and Carolina hosting the Tigers in the final game on Wednesday, April 22.

The South Carolina schedule will also feature a new name, as perennial West Coast power Long Beach State travels to Columbia for a three-game series beginning on Friday, Mar. 6.

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The Gamecocks' 30-game SEC schedule begins on Friday, Mar. 13 with South Carolina traveling to Starkville, Miss. for a three-game series with Mississippi State. Carolina then returns home the next weekend on Friday, Mar. 20, the SEC home opener, a three-game series vs. 2008 CWS participant LSU. The Gamecocks will also host Arkansas, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Georgia. Other SEC road contests include Kentucky,Ole Miss, Florida and Tennessee. The Saturday, April 25 road game between South Carolina and Florida will be televised on FSN South/SEC-TV.

South Carolina will also play 11 additional in-state contests this season with College of Charleston, Furman, Presbyterian, The Citadel, USC Upstate and Wofford. In addition to its two trips to Clemson, the Gamecocks will travel across the state with weekday games on the road vs.Furman (Mar. 18 - at Fluor Field), College of Charleston (Mar. 24), The Citadel (Mar. 31), USC Upstate (April 21) and Wofford (May 6).

The SEC Tournament is scheduled for May 20-24 at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala. with the NCAA Regionals and NCAA Super Regionals the following two weeks. The College World Series in Omaha, Neb. is slated from June 13-24.

South Carolina is one of only five schools in the nation to have made seven NCAA Super Regional appearances over the last nine years (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007). In the previous nine seasons, Carolina owns the fifth highest total of wins in the country (428) and has won more SEC games than any team in the league (162). In addition, the Gamecocks have made nine consecutive postseason appearances, the longest current streak among the 12 SEC schools. South Carolina also has three College World Series trips (2002, 2003, 2004), two SEC championships (2000, 2002) and one SEC tournament title (2004) in that span.